Fireside Chat
by justok
Summary: On an away mission, my OC listens to a conversation between two friends about a third.


Zim started a fire at the pit farthest from the tents. It was still unpleasantly warm, but fires kept animals away at night, and they gave the crew a place to gather for meals and conversations. The chief, she knew, was always in favor of anything that kept the crew close together in manageable, easily guarded groups. And it worked, because almost immediately Lieutenant Uhura and Ensign Chekov came and joined her. The lieutenant sat gracefully on one of the rock stools, as was typical, the young man crouched on the ground, just a bit farther away from the fire. He looked different to Zim, she stared at him, trying to figure out why. He sensed her scrutiny, and glanced up at her, smiling a little nervously. She realized his curls were sopping, hanging long and low, framing his face more than the regulations allowed. It made him look even younger, and Zim liked it. That flustered her, and to distract herself, Zim said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Are you wet?" Zim asked the ensign.

"I went for a swim." he answered.

"You should go change." said Lieutenant Uhura.

"I am almost dry already." Chekov assured her. Zim remembered Mac saying he hadn't brought extra clothes.

"You don't look very dry." Uhura said doubtfully.

"I feel cooler than I have all day." He said firmly.

"Hello Crew!" said a strong voice. Zim looked up, and was surprised to see the captain. He strolled up to the fire and sat down next to Uhura. He took a huge bite of an apple that he carried. Zim wondered if she was the only being on the entire crew that hadn't provided herself with snacks.

"How was it today? Could you believe those damn birds? I actually think I prefer armed insurgence! You couldn't escape them. My uniform was covered in shit." The captain talked around his food. He managed to sound friendly and interested in a way that Zim could not imagine Chief Giotto being.

"Hey," the captain directed his attention at the ensign. "Are you wet? What happened? Let me guess. You fell in didn't you? Christ Chekov. You have got to look where you are going." The captain didn't sound angry, more teasing Zim thought.

Chekov gave the captain an offended look and opened his mouth, but then stopped and looked speculative before saying, "If I fell in I couldn't really get in trouble for that? Is accident right?"

"You mean like as opposed to jumping into the water fully clothed for fun while technically on duty without checking with any of your superiors?" The captain chewed his apple and tried to look thoughtful, but only succeeded in looking slightly less teasing. The ensign didn't answer, just looked at the captain and waited. Zim felt more nervous than he looked.

"Since you didn't need rescuing I don't actually care one way or the other. I doubt Chief Giotto is going to be pleased with you either way though, so I would stay out out of his range. And by the way, Whiz Kid, your boots are dry, which means you took them off to go in. Although," here the captain began to laugh as he spoke, "it is you, and we all know how graceful you're not, so it's possible you fell in while taking them off. Why don't you just go change?"

"I think it's possible he didn't bring any spare clothing." Uhura said disapprovingly. The ensign frowned at the fire, ignoring them both.

"Really Chekov? You didn't? Then what's in your pack?" The captain wouldn't be ignored, the ensign sighed and answered him.

"A blanket, spare batteries for my PADD."

"Really? Batteries for your PADD?" The captain laughed.

"Sometimes I have ideas I need to write down. Recharging my PADD is not a priority on away missions" the ensign sounded defensive, which made the captain laugh harder.

"Yeah, real important ideas, loss to the universe if you don't record them. Or maybe you can't sleep knowing someone out there might have beaten one of your best scores."

"Maybe that too." agreed the younger man, having the good grace to look embarrassed.

The captain laughed harder, and then said, "You could have packed ten batteries and still have wedged some clothes in there."

"I brought snacks too. I knew I would hate all the rations. Dr. McCoy is always telling me to eat more. I try to do what I am told and everyone tells me I am wrong." The ensign, Zim thought, was teasing the captain now. She wondered how he dared.

"You could just force yourself to try new things." Lieutenant Uhura interjected.

"I try new things often." said the ensign. "I just seldom like them."

"When was the last time you tried something new?"

"I tried that stew they replicated the day we left."

"You did?" The woman sounded like she doubted it.

"I tried it," said Chekov. "I didn't say I liked it. It tasted like a bowl of aluminum and so I recycled it."

Uhura and the captain both laughed at him, and Zim smiled too, because he sounded so disgusted.

Uhura said, "Replicated peppers are always horrific. I don't actually blame you for that one. But seriously, do you eat anything you didn't eat when you were a tiny child?"

"A tinier child than now she means." added the captain, in a mocking voice. That earned him a withering stare from the lieutenant, but Chekov actually smiled at him like he was sharing the joke.

What was the last new thing you liked?" Uhura asked, trying again.

The ensign thought and then said, "I never ate lasagna before I was on the Enterprise. Now I eat it whenever they have it." He seemed proud of his accomplishment.

"Anything else?" asked the captain.

The ensign looked thoughtful, then added, "It's not brand new, but I never ate birthday cake before I was at the academy. Now I will eat as much as I can get. I ate one half of the cake at Yeoman Rand's party last week." he paused and then added, "It was chocolate and everyone else said they had enough."

The captain turned to Uhura. "Lasagna and cake. And you think he lacks an adventurous spirit."

The lieutenant rolled her eyes, "Don't they have birthday cake in Russia?"

"Yes," said the ensign. "But it tends to be pie. And my birthday is in September, so I was always at school." He looked serious and added, "You would be surprised at how little celebration there is of the quietest member of the chess team."

That made the captain laugh uproariously. His communicator sounded and he pulled it out. He glanced at it, sighed, and began to stand up. As he did so he reached over and ruffled the ensign's hair, or tried to, but he only succeeded in shaking the younger man's head, which sprayed water out of his sodden curls, and wetted his own pants.

"Now you got me wet." He said. "Only you could manage to do that out without even standing up." Still laughing, the captain ambled off in the direction he had come from. Ensign Chekov sighed very loudly and gazed at the fire. After a minute he reached up and began to squeeze water out of his hair.

"Alright. What's up with him and the clumsy?" Lieutenant Uhura sounded a little peevish. The ensign looked at her uncertainly and she started again. "Why does he keep calling you clumsy?"

"I am clumsy." said the ensign, sounding genuinely surprised.

"No. You aren't. Well, yes you are, but it's because you write in your PADD as you walk and run into things. And you go too fast all the time. Or you are walking sideways and chattering to whomever is next to you instead of looking where you are going and run into something; but that's always been true, which means you are no more clumsy now than you were last month and he managed to have conversations with you then without mentioning it. So I want to know what changed." The lieutenant stared penetrating at the ensign. He ignored her and continued to look at the fire.

After he hadn't responded for several seconds, the lieutenant spoke again, more gently, "Pasha, no one who has seen you code,...or run,...or play the piano would ever say you are clumsy. I know something happened. I want to know what."

"I will tell you later." Chekov said very quietly.

"No. That's what you told me yesterday. For you, it is later. Tell me right now." The lieutenant was looking fierce again, the ensign sighed and turned toward the two women.

Zim thought, he wants privacy to talk to his friend. "I can leave, I'm sorry." she said and started to stand.

"Oh no Zim!" the ensign smiled kindly at her. "Mac tells me you know all our secrets, so you are my new friend. I don't mind if you hear. It's just that I know it is unwise of me to say anything to anyone."

"Well you don't have any choice." Uhura said firmly.

"Alright, I will tell." The ensign swallowed nervously and after fixing his gaze back on the fire, began.

"The captain heard that I beat Mr. Spock during our last chess game." The ensign sighed again and continued, "When that happens, he always says he wants to play me. And we have played several times in the past." The ensign paused and picking up a stick, poked at the fire.

"Pasha, don't take this the wrong way, but I am not sure it is a great idea for you to beat the captain at chess. Well, actually at anything he is seriously interested in." Lieutenant Uhura sounded uncharacteristically tentative. Zim thought it was kind of her to be so concerned.

Chekov gave her a cold look, "Why does everyone think I am an idiot? I have watched the captain after he spars with Hikaru. I know he hates to lose. I know he can not stop trying for rematch. Mr. Sulu is much tougher than me. I could never stand the...intensity. I know he would just make me play over and over until he wins anyway, so I just see that he always wins. Is easier, is better for me."

"I don't see," began Uhura, but the younger man continued.

"Of course, sometimes he just beats me. Captain Kirk is amazing, as we know. He is good at everything. He is very good chess player." The young man took a breath, looked up at the women and, sounding apologetic, continued, "But I am also very good, maybe, excellent chess player, and I have played mostly against humans, so he does not surprise me as he so often does Mr. Spock. I think perhaps, I would beat him more often than Mr. Spock does, if I wanted to. Which as I say, I do not. So...if he is not beating me, I make him win. Sometimes he just needs me to make a few mistakes. Sometimes though, he is not paying attention, and I have to work hard to lose without seeming to try to do so. Two weeks ago was time like that. He said he wanted to play. I put him off, but he insisted. He found me in a rec room watching vids with my friends, and he had brought a board, and I could not make him wait. But then we play and he won't pay attention! He talks to everyone. He watches vid. He flirts with yeoman. He won't play chess! I don't know what to do. I can't tell him pay attention. I can't play bad enough for him to win without arising suspicion... And then the very worst thing that could happen did." The ensign sighed again, and returned his gaze to the fire, shoving the stick deep into it. For several seconds he didn't speak. Uhura grew frustrated.

"What very worst thing? What happened?" the lieutenant leaned closer to the young man. Zim did too, and tried to imagine what he was going to say.

The ensign looked sadly at the two women. He whispered, "You know Yeoman Perkins?"

Uhura looked at Zim with consternation, then back at the ensign. "Yes. Sure. So what?"

"So beautiful." said the ensign softly, "She is one of those I can't even talk when she is in the room. Well, she must have been cleaning up after some department meeting, because she walked backwards out of the conference room off the rec area. And part of her uniform was stuck in those, um, those little pants part of the uniform. You know what I mean?" He curved his hand into an open semicircle and somehow Zim had a vision of a uniform skirt tucked into the matching spanx.

"You could see part of her perfect little backside." he said, sounding a little awestruck.

The ensign paused again, seemed lost in the memory, then remembered himself and added, "I was staring, I know, but the captain, he was really staring. And then it got worse, because when she turned around, she was carrying a platter. And guess what is on this platter? The leftover food from the meeting. Donuts, and cookies, sandwiches maybe? I don't know, I was not interested. But the captain was. She walked across the room with it, right past us, over to where her friends were. Then she bent over to share with them the food."

Lieutenant Uhura actually snorted from laughing so hard. The ensign looked at her sadly. She said, "I'm sorry, It's just so perfect, A Kirk trifecta! A good looking woman, partially naked, carrying carbohydrates! Oh my God! Did he get up and follow her?"

"No" said Chekov. "But he should have! He wouldn't even try any more. He didn't even pretend to be interested in chess. I didn't know what to do. I just wanted it all to be over. I could only think of one way to get away. It wasn't a good idea, but I had no others. I reached my hand out and I flipped the board over. It was easy. Captain Kirk wasn't even looking at me."

He shook his head at the memory and then continued. "Do you know how loud it is when one of those three dimensional chess board hits a metal deck? Very loud. It shattered. I probably broke it for ever. I don't know. I do know the noise made Yeoman Perkins drop the platter. Right on her friends. And then they were noisy too. The captain yelled at me in front of everyone, but I didn't care because I could just concede and didn't have to beat him at chess."

Lieutenant Uhura laughed louder, and Zim found herself chuckling too.

The ensign frowned at the fire, obviously reliving the unpleasant memory. Gradually he looked back up at the women, and with a sly little grin, said, "I have an idea though, that the captain is suspicious. He keeps trying to provoke me, mentioning my clumsiness so many times. I think he wants me to defend myself and confess everything. But I never will. He thinks he can shame me into speaking, but I consider this a victory"

As he spoke his communicator sounded. He opened it, identified himself, and listened. He said, "I will do that immediately sir, and I will let you know what I find." He jumped up and said, "Mr. Spock wishes me to calibrate all the tricorders and clean them well. Apparently, like us, they object to being covered for hours in chicken shit." He started to hurry off towards the camp, but stopped after a few steps to turn back and put his finger to his lips, reminding them to be careful with his secret. When Zim nodded he grinned and then turned and ran off, to Mr. Spock and his responsibilities.

Zim and Uhura watched him go. Zim surprised herself by saying, "He's very...good tempered."

"That's a fair description." agreed the lieutenant with a smile.

Zim turned back to her work, preparing a stack of the firewood for the night. She tried to put her whole mind to it, but she found herself wondering if the happy ensign would manage to avoid the chief until he was entirely dry. She hoped so.


End file.
